Reiteration

For the novelist's random contest. It had to include an elf by the name of Ratorniob Loneflute.

Submitted:Jul 15, 2012
Reads: 10
Comments: 1
Likes: 0

"Brad my man! How've you
been?"

"Ughhh... It's too early.
Go away."

"Is that really any way
to speak to your main man, Rator? Only man really," he chuckled
to himself as he bounced around the room. "And it's not too
early, I'm bored. GET UP I SAY YOU!"

Rator was short for
Ratorniob Loneflute. Which would be a weird name if he was, you
know, human. Or real. Of which he was neither.

Ratorniob, or Rator, was
actually an elf. His skinny frame was about 2 feet in height and
rather pale. His hair was blonde and curly and always matted. And
his tiny emerald eyes had a habit of glowing with great intensity
whenever he was excited, which is how they were right
now.

Bradley reached over to
his nightstand to grab the pill bottle that sat next to his alarm
clock. He wasn't able to lay a finger on it before Rator snatched
it away from him.

"Not today man. Jeez,
what kind of friend are you?"

"We aren't friends
Rator."

"That hurts Brad, that
really hurts."

"Don't call me
Brad."

"Then don't hurt me so."
He sneered.

"Fine, I'm sorry. We're
friends. Can I have the bottle back now?"

"Ummm.... Euhh...
Nooo..." He laughed and bounced around more
jubilantly.

"Come on Rator, I mean
it!"

"So did I when I said
NO."

"I'm warning you Rator, I
don't feel like doing this today."

He broke into another
laugh "So what are you going to do about it,
Braddy-boy?"

Bradley lunged out of his
bed and grabbed out at Rator, who easily bounced out of his reach
and began to run down the hall, pill bottle still in hand.
Bradley went to stand but had become tangled in his bed sheets,
and merely fell to the floor once more. He managed to free
himself, and took off after Rator, whom he found in the
kitchen.

"I hid it. And I'm not
going to tell you where it is. So you can either waste time using
your shrilly voice to whine at me, ooooorrrrrr you can go get
dressed so we can have some fun."

"No day with you is
fun..."

"Feelings Bradley! I have
them! Seriously though, this is why you don't have any
friends."

"YOU are why I don't have
any friends."

"Well yeah okay, maybe
that too."

"Oh I just feel so giddy!
It's gonna be a great day, I can feel it. Can you feel it
Brad?"

"Bradley…" He
murmured.

He had showered and
gotten dressed, feeling nothing short of wanting to rip Rator in
half. Now they were out on the city streets, just a few blocks
from his apartment building.

"Yeah whatever Brad. So
where are we going?"

"It's a
surprise."

"Oh I love surprises! You
know how I love them. You did this just for me didn't you? Didn't
you Brad?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." He
didn't see the point in correcting him anymore.

"Oh Brad. You know, our
friendship has had its trouble, sure. But what friendship hasn't?
I feel like we're really turning over a new leaf here. Things are
only going to get bet…"

"Will you just shut up
already?"

"Annnnddd you had to ruin
it. Why do I even bother Brad, why do I even
bother?"

Ignoring him, Bradley
turned and made his way up the stairs of an old Brownstone. Rator
stopped dead in his tracks.

"Brad, you suck at
surprises. I don't want to go in there."

"I never said it was a
good surprise."

"Technicality. Surprises
are implied to be fun."

"Whatever, we're going
in."

"Correction, you are
going in. I'll wait out here." Rator plopped himself down on a
step and grinned smugly up at Bradley. "Have a swell
time."

Bradley expertly
navigated the halls, he'd been here so many times before that he
could probably walk the route with his eyes closed, and went
right to Dr. Stevenson's office.

"Oh Bradley," Dr.
Stevenson peered at him from overtop of his glasses, "I wasn't
expecting you today."

"Yeah, sorry…" He
muttered. "It's kind of an emergency, I hoped you wouldn't
mind."

"No not all at. Here,
take a seat." He motioned to the chair across from his desk and
Bradley was in it in a heartbeat.

"He's back
again."

The doctor sighed.
"Rator?"

"I don't like how he says
it." Bradley jumped in surprise and found Rator sitting on the
arm of the chair next to him.

"I thought you were
waiting outside!"

"He says is like the
'gator' part in 'alligator'. And with an accent like someone in
the bayou of Louisiana. I would like to think I'm more civilized
than that. Tell him to say it like 'ra', like that sun guy, and
'tour'. That sounds better."

"What, are you French
now? And I'm not telling him that."

"Well it is MY name, I
would like to think I have a say in how people pronounce
it."

"Bradley," the doctor cut
in, "Is Rator here now?"

"No don't tell him!"
Rator jumped from off the chair and landed low on the floor.
"Don't! Don't!"

"Uhhh… yeah he is."
Bradley confused.

"You're a horrible friend
Brad. A horrible, horrible friend."

"Now Bradley, we've
talked about this. Rator is only a figment of your imagination.
He's a hallucination, this is why you are supposed to take your
medication."

"But he hid it!" Bradley
protested.

"He can't do that Brad,
and you know that. You hid it, and you know where it is. You need
to calm yourself down and think, where did you put
it?"

"I don't know! He took it
from me this morning when I tried to take it."

"Do you think that maybe
you hallucinated that he stole it from you because you actually
didn't wish to take it? Hm? This isn't the first time this has
happened." The doctor has this way of looking over his glasses
and turning his face downwards when he spoke so that he was
peering up at you. It made everything he said sound
condescending, and gave him an air that he thought himself so
much better than anyone else that he didn't find it worth it to
exert the energy to hold his head up at face level. While it
would normally bother most people, Bradley was rather used to it
by now, and not just from the man before him.

"No! I want to take it, I
want him gone!"

"Hey!" Rator interjected.
"You guys don't have to talk about me like I'm not here you know.
It's hurtful."

"My god, SHUT UP!"
Bradley's sudden outburst shocked the doctor, and the two sat
quiet for a while.

"Bradley…" The doctor
started slowly, his voice soft. "I'm going to put in a request
that you be readmitted to the ward, just for a little
while."

"No!" He jumped up. "No,
I don't want to go back. I won't. I… I remember where I put it
now, where I hid my medication," he stammered. "I'll be alright,
I'm sorry to bother you. I shouldn't have come." He hastily made
his way to the door, but wasn't able to cross the threshold
before the doctor stopped him.

"Bradley, I'm going to
have them stop by and check on you tomorrow. If things aren't
well, you're going to have to be readmitted. I'm sorry but you
won't have a choice in the matter, you were released under my
care, making me responsible for you."

Bradley turned to stare
at him before abruptly storming down the halls and back onto the
street.

"So where are we going
now, huh? You know, I'm kind of hungry, we should get something
to eat."

"I thought you were
staying out here? Why did you follow me in there?"

"I got bored. How about
Italian?"

"No, we aren't getting
anything to eat. I have something to do." He briskly made his way
down the street, shoving his hands in his pockets and tucking his
chin into his chest all in an attempt to make himself as
invisible as possible.

"Where are we going?"
Rator was skipping in endless circles around Bradley as he
walked, who was doing his best to ignore him.

"It's uhh, a
surprise."

"Is it at least a good
surprise this time?"

"It doesn't
matter."

"It's probably going to
suck…"

"Can you please just stop
talking?"

"Can you please just stop
talking?" Rator mocked him in a rather high pitched, squeaky
voice. "That's what you sound like. Annoying isn't
it?"

After what seemed like an
eternity spent in hellfire, Bradley arrived at his destination.
It was a shabby looking apartment building at least 20 or so
stories in height. During his several block walk there he did his
best to ignore the ever persistent Rator, but not with much
avail. His lack of responses didn't necessarily discourage Rator,
who was more accustomed to it than not.

He entered the building
and made for the stairs, with Rator bouncing at his
heels.

"What, looking for a new
place?" He questioned.

Bradley ignored him and
continued his journey up the staircase.

"Which floor are we going
to? We're missing all the good apartments, no one wants the ones
at the top."

Bradley didn't stop until
he was on the roof of the building. Once there, he paused and
looked up at the sky. It was a grey and dismal day, the sun
wasn't able to muster the strength to shine through the clouds.
Bradley didn't mind.

Bringing his eyes back
down, he made his way to the edge of the roof. There was a ledge
about chest high, which he hoisted himself on to.

"Whoa whoa, Brad. You
know I'm always up for a little reckless endangerment, but isn't
this a tad much?"

"No, I think this is just
enough." He now stood almost entirely over the ledge. The only
thing that kept him grounded were his heels that were positioned
right on the edge and on which he steadied all his
weight.

"Brad, what are you doing
man? Stop it, get down from there and let's go get some food. I'm
freaking starving over here."

"You can go do whatever
you want. I'm done."

"I can't do anything
without you Brad, you know that. And what do you mean you're
done?"

"Stop calling me Brad."
He began to teeter, shifting his weight forward and back all
while balancing on the arches of his feet.

"What's this about
man?"

"Everything! This is
about everything Rator! I'm tired of living like this, I'm tired
of you and I'm not going back there… So I'm done."

"Alright alright, calm
down. It's not so bad, I'm… I'm not so bad."

"You're relentless Rator!
You never stop! I never get peace when you're around, and you're
never gone."

"Ok fine, I'll be better.
I promise. Just get down from there."

"I don't believe
you."

"I will, I
promise."

Bradley didn't respond.
Instead, he simply began to lean forward.

"Bradley stop. Come
on."

Still no
answer.

"Fine. If you really find
me that horrid, I'll go. But you have to promise me you'll get
down from there if I leave."

Bradley shifted his
weight back and looked back at him.

"If it's really what you
want Bradley…."

And with that he was
gone. Right before his eyes, Ratorniob Loneflute was no more.
Bradley hopped down from the ledge and peered around. It couldn't
have been that easy. He walked over to the door that lead back
into the apartments, opened it and peered into the stairwell.
Still no Rator.

For the first time in a
while, when Bradley began descending the stairs, he felt at
peace. He felt like a weight was lifted. There was no longer a
tiny elf bounding behind him, whining about what they were and
weren't doing. There was no longer anyone stopping him for doing
what he wanted to do, accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish.
His time was, for once, all his. To be spent on him alone. He
felt truly free. But by the time he reached the last step he felt
empty, and for the first time in a while he felt truly
alone.

The next morning Bradley
awoke to the harsh blaring of his alarm, and rolled over to smash
the off button. He laid in bed for a moment, rubbing the morning
haze from his eyes. And when he sat up and opened
them-